Custer's last flag sold for £1.2m

The only US flag not captured or lost during George Armstrong Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn in south eastern Montana has been bought at auction on a bid of 1.9 million US dollars (£1.2 million).

The only US flag not captured or lost during George Armstrong Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn in south eastern Montana has been bought at auction on a bid of 1.9 million US dollars (£1.2 million).

The frayed 7th US Cavalry flag - known as a "guidon" for it's swallow-tailed shape - was sold at Sotheby's auction house in New York.

The seller was the Detroit Institute of Arts, which bought the flag for just 54 dollars (£34) in 1895. The buyer was not immediately known.

Custer and more than 200 troopers were massacred by Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors in the infamous 1876 battle. Of five guidons carried by Custer's battalion, only one was immediately recovered.